Also known as smart travelling, community carpooling allows people to share a ride with others, which in turn allows them to cut down on travel costs, ease congestion during peak travel times, and help the environment.
Wondering if community carpooling is right for you? Here’s what you need to know.
What is Community Carpooling?
When you carpool, you essentially share a ride with others travelling in the same direction – or to the same destination – as you.
Carpooling may be organised within a community or workplace, often on a regular day-to-day basis. As an example, this could involve sharing a ride to and from the city for work every day.
On the other hand, carpooling can also be organised as a one-off event, where a group of people share a longer journey, as they travel either for work or for leisure.
Benefits of Community Carpooling
Why would you want to carpool? Let’s take a look at the various benefits both of community carpooling and other types of carpooling.
Less Traffic
Let’s say you carpool with three other people. Instead of there being four cars on the road, all going in the same direction, there is only one. As more people take up community carpooling, this helps to ease congestion, making for a shorter drive for everyone, with less time spent in traffic.
Easier Parking
Similarly, when you arrive at your destination, there is only one car to park, instead of four. Not only would this make paid parking more affordable – where parking costs are split four ways, instead of only one – it should also make parking spots easier to come by as more people choose to carpool.
Help the Environment
Fewer cars on the road means less pollution around us. If you want to reduce your carbon footprint to make your surroundings more liveable, carpooling could be the perfect option.
Save on Fuel Costs
Rising fuel prices have affected us all over the past few months, chipping away at our budgets as we also try to keep on top of other rising costs. One way to save on fuel could be to carpool, as you share the burden with other people instead of carrying the entire cost of fuel yourself.
Save on Car Ownership Costs
Buying, maintaining and running a car is expensive. Whether you choose a carpool with one dedicated driver or you rotate drivers, you can save on car running costs as your car sees less time on the road, and therefore less wear and tear.
Easier Commute
With a rotating driver system in place, carpooling allows those who are not driving to enjoy a more productive – or relaxing – commute. Being a passenger instead of a driver, you could catch up on work, read a book or perhaps meditate as you ready yourself for or wind down from your day.
Make Friends
While being stuck in the car with a group of strangers may not be to everyone’s taste, you may find you like the social side of carpooling. On long journeys or regular commutes, you can get to know your fellow carpoolers – and perhaps even make friends.
More Direct than Public Transport
Why choose carpooling over public transport? Aside from the fact that you have to share public transport with a much larger group of people, public transport options may also not be as direct as a carpooling route. You may have to go further out of your way to catch public transport, and you may also have to sit through more stops, so your journey takes longer.
Organising Community Carpooling
One of the easiest ways to get into community carpooling is to use a dedicated community carpooling site, such as communitycarpooling.com.au.
Linking drivers with passengers and passengers with drivers, these sites make it super easy to find and connect with other people travelling the same route or journey as you, whether as a one-off or on a regular basis.
